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Old 19-07-10, 18:20
paultp paultp is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: England
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Just to round this off, I looked at the various war diaries and couldn't find any mention of my father during his time with 28 CAR.

However, I did locate the war diary for 5 A/Tk Regt at the National Archives and found many mentions of him which has given me a much clearer insight into his wartime experiences and actions. He had told my elder brother that the only time he was wounded was when the Americans attacked them by mistake, and there it was in the diary! And on his birthday too!

Those war diaries make for fantastic reading too as they give a day by day report on each unit's activities that isn't influenced by hindsight or any wider view of the war. In the 5 A/T diary it was interesting to get a feel for how their attitudes changed as they went from training in the South of England to the Docks at Tilbury and then arrived in France. From anticipating war to being shot at. One early entry has a complaint about the poor organisation of the landing at France, they seem to have overlooked the fact that they arrive a month after D-Day and paperwork by then wasn't top of the list of priorities!

A big thank you to Mark as well for all his help.

Cheers
Paul
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